Papers of the Interdepartmental Conference on Middle Eastern Affairs [‎back-i] (289/290)

7
Hodeklah.
Moetiu^ of Ara'*
This statement of policy to be submitted, in the first place, to
the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. for concurrence, and subsequently in its final form
to the Government of India and to the representatives of His
Majesty’s Government concerned for their views. On receipt of
these views the Treasury to be approached for their final sanction to
the total agreed upon between the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. and the Department
of His Majesty’s Government responsible for Arabian policy.
II. Mr. Chamberlain asked whether it was necessary for the
battalion of infantry now at Hodei lah to remain there any longer.
He pointed out that its retention there was costing the British
taxpayer £300,000 a year, or three times as much as the total figure
now suggested for subsidies in Arabia.
Major Yovmj explained that Hodeidah w.is a bone of contention
between the Imam and the Idrisi. It had always been the intention
of the Foreign Office to bring about a reconciliation between these
two rulers, but their efforts to do so had hitherto been frustrated by
the attitude of the Imam, who declined to recognise that His
Majesty’s Government had any say in the matter. It was hoped
that as soon as the principal Allied Powers had concurred in the
articles relating to Arabia, which were printed in Appendix (A) of
the Foreign Office Memorandum, it would be possible to open
negotiations with the Imam. The battalion at Hodeidah had
originally gone there in consequence of the detention of the abortive
mission under Oolonel Jacob which had been captured by local
Arabs on its way to the Imam. The battalion had been retained at
Hodeidah in the hope that His Majesty’s Government would shortly
be in a position to effect a reconciliation between the Imam and the
Idrisi and to decide upon the future of the port. The negotiations
with the principal Allied Powers had been postponed pending the
decision, which had just been reached by the Conference, on the
financial aspect of Arabian policy. The proposals of the British
delegation for the Arabian settlement had been for some time
before the members of the Conference, and he asked whether it
might now be assumed that there was no objection to the matter
being taken up with the French. If this was so there would no
longer be any need to retain a battalion at Hodeidah.
The Chairman said that in view of the decision of the
Conference he saw no objection to negotiations being opened with
the French immediately, and undertook to inform the \\ ar Office as
soon as possible that the battalion at Hodeidah could be removed.
Mr. Chamberlain said that he saw' no objection to the
proposals of the British delegation, provided that they involved
no expenditure on subsidies additional to the provisional £50,000
to which he had already agreed ; no addition to pre-war expenditure
in Arabia without specilie Treasury concurrence in each case ; and
that His Majesty’s Government were not asked to guarantee any
loans.
III. Mr. Montagu asked for a decision on the proposal, which
had originated in the foreign Office, that a meeting should be
arranged between certain of the independent rulers ol Arabia. He
read a telegram from Sir Percy Cox, in which the latter had expressed
the opinion that it was in any case impossible to ask ibn Saud to
leave Nejd at the present moment.
Major Young said that the proposal for a meeting had originated
out of the boundary dispute between Hussein and ibn Saud. 1 he